Live Photo Extractor

How to get Live Photos out of iCloud Photos

You export the files yourself; this page never signs in to or reads your account. On iCloud.com, open Photos, select the Live Photos and download them; depending on the options you choose, the browser saves the still and the video, often inside a ZIP. On a Mac, exporting unmodified originals from the Photos app produces both files. Connecting an iPhone to a Windows computer and importing also copies the MOV part alongside the photo.

Why the still is often HEIC

iPhones save stills in the High Efficiency format by default, set under Settings, then Camera, then Formats. The Photos setting called Transfer to Mac or PC decides whether files are converted to JPG when copied (Automatic) or kept as HEIC (Keep Originals). The video part is usually a MOV file encoded as HEVC.

What this tool does

A Live Photo is a still image and a roughly three-second video captured together. Once exported they are two ordinary files that share a name, for example IMG_1234.HEIC and IMG_1234.MOV. The extractor reads the files you add, matches stills to videos by name regardless of letter case, and lists anything it could not match so you can pair it by hand: select a still, then select its video.

Edited photos

When a photo was edited on the device, exports can include a copy named like IMG_E1234. The tool recognises these and shows when a name could belong to more than one file, so an ambiguous match is explained rather than guessed silently.

Preview and downloads

• The still is decoded in the browser, including HEIC.
• The video plays if your browser supports its codec; if not, a message says so and the download still works.
• Download the still, the video, a single pair as a ZIP, or every pair as one ZIP.

Keeping Live Photos organised

Because a Live Photo is two files, keep the still and the video together when you move or back them up. Downloading a pair as a ZIP is a simple way to do that: both files travel as one item and keep their matching names. If you only want the picture, download the still on its own; if you want the moment of movement for a video editor, download the MOV. Metadata inside each file is left exactly as it was, because the files are not rewritten. The original bytes are kept.

What it does not do

• It does not convert Live Photos to GIF or MP4, because browsers cannot reliably decode every iPhone video.
• It cannot unpack a Live Photo that another app saved as a single combined file.
• It does not change or re-encode your files; downloads are the original bytes.

Privacy

Your files are processed locally in your browser and are not uploaded to A2Z Tools. The tool has no access to your iCloud account and only sees the files you select.

A2Z Tools is an independent service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Apple Inc. iCloud, iPhone and Apple are trademarks of Apple Inc.